protests

About 45 white nationalists showed up for a Saturday rally on the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus that was led by Matthew Heimbach, leader of a group known as Traditionalist Worker Party, reports the News Sentinel. So did 250 people protesting white nationalists and about 200 law enforcement officers from four different agencies.

There were no arrests, though six people were issued tickets for obstructing a highway during the protests, according to University of Tennessee Police Chief Troy Lane.

After vocal opposition from residents in and around the Tipton County community of Randolph, located on the banks of the Mississippi River, state officials are withdrawing their current plans for the Memphis Regional Megasite’s 35-mile long wastewater pipeline, reports the Memphis Daily News.

Women’s March events in Tennessee, held in conjunction with similar rallies around the nation, drew thousands of participants, according to media reports. It appears the best-attended events were in Nashville on Saturday and Knoxville on Sunday.

The Tennessee Legislature has quietly revised its “Facility Use Policies” to remove a ban on all signs within the Cordell Hull building. Moving forward, “small letter sized signs that do not obstruct the view of visitors are acceptable,” according to the policy.

Under the previous set of rules, all signs were banned, regardless of whether they were hand-held or mounted to sticks or poles. The fact that this was done in the name of preventing “a serious safety hazard to visors and tenants” was the cause of much mockery because it was imposed alongside a new policy allowing handgun carry permit holders to be armed within the building.

House Democrats announced Wednesday that Rep. Sherry Jones (D-Nashville) had requested a legal opinion from state Attorney General Herbert Slatery about whether ban on “hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks” violates the First Amendment. Jones’ letter is dated Jan. 11.

Lots of law enforcement officers were on hand for an organized protest against a Memphis City Council move that led to removing statutes of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, and Confederate cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, reports the Commercial Appeal. But they didn’t have much to do except watch the peaceful proceedings.

Senate Speaker Randy McNally and House Speaker Beth Harwell have approved a new policy that prohibits “hand-carried signs and signs on hand sticks” at the Legislature because they “represent a serious safety hazard,” reports The Tennessean. The speakers had earlier approved a policy change to allow handgun permit holders to bring their weapons to legislative hearings and offices.

A Marsha Blackburn supporter “wrested a cell phone” from a protester who was recording a Knoxville campaign breakfast event over the weekend and the protester is now planning a civil lawsuit and perhaps a criminal charge as well, reports Betty Bean.

A pair of white nationalist rallies in two Tennessee towns went off relatively peacefully Saturday with only one arrest, after police prepared carefully to keep demonstrators and counter demonstrators under control, reports ABC News.

One “White Lives Matter” attendee who was standing with the white nationalists was arrested during the first rally, in Shelbyville. The white male, wearing a green fleece jacket, was approached by a flurry of cops who quickly pulled him through a temporarily detached metal barricade, pinning protesters on two sides of a street. Police took the unidentified man away in a golf cart.

At the second rally, in Murfreesboro, there were no reported injuries, damage or arrests, city officials said.

In Chattanooga Sunday, a protest march was staged to urge removal of Confederate Gen. Alexander P. Stewart’s bust from the Hamilton County Courthouse lawn with a smaller group of counter-protesters on hand, reports the Times Free Press.

In Knoxville, meanwhile, former mayor Victor Ashe revisits the State Capitol Commission’s vote against Gov. Bill Haslam’s request to move a bust of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest from the lobby between the state House and Senate chambers.

And the Tennessee Historical Commission has postponed its vote on relocating a Forrest statute in Memphis. Originally scheduled for Oct. 13, it now won’t come until February of next year at the earliest, reports the Memphis Flyer.

Former Sen. Mae Beavers, now running for governor, and Breitbart News are making an issue of the Haslam family’s comments on the ongoing national anthem controversy in the National Football League. Beavers says Randy Boyd, one of her GOP primary opponents, should return any contributions received from the governor’s family.